Grabe naman! Always verify before sharing! Eto na naman!
I have noted people's sharing behavior regarding the news. They liberate the news flow and accelerate the dialog about issues that they like. They go berserk when they transmit the story as they gain authority over it. And they turn out to be opinion leaders to those with whom they shared the kind of news and content which they preferred to broadcast. At that point, they become ambassadors of the innovative content that they have just diffused.
Studies show that opinion leaders are information-seekers and have a high degree of involvement with society. And this is why they share the news on social media. Website traffic has incredibly improved that even newspapers use social media to circulate the once solely printed form.
So, how many are engaged in social media?
Around 3.8 billion people are active users of social media, according to the Digital 2020 report, so you can imagine how massive the amount of sharing that occurs. Filipino users, about 76 million of us, spend four hours of our day in social media compared to the rest of the world who only averages two hours and 24 minutes per day.
Facebook is the social media platform of choice, with 2.5 billion users globally according to Statista. YouTube, a video-sharing website, is ranked second, having 1.68 billion visitors. Then, WhatsApp, a mobile messenger app, followed the trail with 1.6 billion registered users. Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion), and Viber (1.1 billion) complete the top 5. In comparison, Donald Trump's network of choice, Twitter, has 152 million users.
In our country, there are around 72 million of us who enjoy using Facebook, and this is why we ranked third in the world after Indonesia with 134 million users. India is number one, having 251 million users, according to Internet World Stats.
So, what if many use social media?
Apparently, social media users seem to circulate whatever they find exciting. "Retweeting" or "reposting" in any social media is so simple that forwarding news to any platform is an absolute breeze.
In Ghersetti's 2012 research, he mentioned that negative, unexpected, unforeseen, and odd events more easily become news items than events that were positive, expected, foreseen, and normal. Thus, when the pandemic started, the trending topic was about people dying. I remember a shared video that was quite disturbing. It linked the coronavirus to dead bodies that were washed ashore. Guess what? I found out that they were bodies of African migrants from a capsized boat in 2014.
Then there was another hair-raising video that showed many 'black body bags' placed along a hospital hallway in Quezon City. The video allegedly was filmed by an unnamed nurse who worked in the hospital. Guess what? The hospital in the video was in Ecuador, not in the Philippines! See how social media can heighten fake news? This video went viral.
And now that we have spent more than two-months at home since the community quarantine started, the discussion has shifted to life under a "new normal." I received, in two different platforms, a long list of our government's supposed 'roadmap to ease Covid-19 restrictions that will be set out in 5 phases'. Guess what again? It was copied from Ireland's roadmap! Thank God, a colleague, found the source. Imagine if I just simply reposted it? Everyone who reads my forwarded message will follow the suggested actions prescribed in the roadmap per the specific dates it directed. It will distort the readers' understanding of our government's policy.
Why are fake news shared?
Very often, the positive or negative implications of inaccurate news become unimportant when the content is exciting. Have you verified the source? Can you trust the source? Often, these questions are disregarded. And when people who share it are advised that it's fake news, the answer you get is, "I just forwarded it." Very frustrating to hear because it conveys a lack of care and empathy to those who receive the messages. You may also hear something like, "It came from a friend who is a friend of a high official," which was meant to make the source credible. Such excuses seek to give credence to one's slothfulness as apparently, fake news already went viral again.
We examine and interpret the information we get by using our ability to see, hear, and feel. Critical thinking helps us lessen any doubt as we verify that the news is accurate, fair, and based on facts. It is when people fail to think that they fall for fake news. Pennycook and Rand said people who think analytically could determine fake versus real news headlines. Believe it or not, those who are susceptible to fake news are steered by lazy thinking rather than motivated reasoning.
How can we counter fake news?
Because of the immense flawed information hovering on the Internet, it is our responsibility to verify sources before we share any content. We must avoid websites or posts that are not credible. We should think critically about what we read and see on the Internet. Share only accurate information. It is the remedy for spreading fake news. Therefore, you can say, "I shared it" rather than "I just shared it."
Dr. Ana Liza Asis-Castro is a part-time faculty at the Management and Organization Department of the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business, De La Salle University where she teaches in the MBA program. She welcomes comments at ana.liza.asiscastro@gmail.com.
The views expressed above are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the position of De La Salle University, its faculty, and its administrators.
